Kia wants piece of Korean performance pie, too; plans 4-door GT coupe production for 2016

By Nick Jaynes October 23, 2013

While Toyota is hemming and hawing over a four-door Scion FR-R, Kia is reportedly going ahead with it’s own version: a 2016 production version of GT concept four-door coupe.

The rear-wheel drive concept you see above was first unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. Since we’d not heard anything more of the sporty Korean coupe. We assumed nothing would come of it.

Recommended Videos

Today we learn that Kia has been secretly pondering the gorgeous four-door coupe for some time now and plans to send the thing into production for 2016.

Speaking with Auto Express, Kia’s vice-president of overseas marketing, Soon-Nam Lee, said: “We have plans to build a GT – we spoke about it at our global marketing conference in Singapore. We’ll be mainly targeting the end of 2016 or early 2017.”

Although the GT concept is a rear-drive car, the production version will likely be front-wheel drive, which is rather disappointing.

According to Auto Express, Kia is keen to become the sportier side of the Hyundai/Kia pairing.

This is rather funny, as we it seems Hyundai is thinking the same thing of itself. Hyundai, Kia’s sister brand, recently decided to found a performance-oriented sub-brand aimed to attract younger buyers.

And from the surface, it seems Hyundai might win-out. Despite some truly brilliant front-wheel drive cars hitting the market recently, rear-wheel drive is the quickest way to make a sporty sedan or coupe.

Hyundai already has three rear-drive models: The Equus, Genesis, and Genesis Coupe. Kia has zero rear-drivers on sale in the U.S. So starting a head-to-head sporty war with Hyundai immediately seems like a losing proposition for Kia.

Then if we take into account the other like-minded import four-door sports coupe concepts, I’d pick the FR-S four-door coupe over the Kia GT every day of the week.

So will this Kia GT four-door coupe come to fruition? We’ll have to wait and see. Personally, I think Kia would be better suited to leaving the sportiness to Hyundai’s new sub-brand and lean instead on making accessible, youthful cars like it does today.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Nick Jaynes is the Automotive Editor for Digital Trends. He developed a passion for writing about cars working his way…

Cars

A plug-in hybrid upgrade makes the Bentley Continental GT Speed even better

2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed front quarter view.

Every car brand is navigating a course to an electrified future, but that brings unique challenges if you have to convince wealthy people to buy a car with a plug due to something as pedestrian as emissions standards.

Bentley has sold plug-in hybrids for a few years now, but the century-old British automaker is now shifting that effort into a higher gear. The 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed (and its GTC Speed convertible sibling) isn’t just an addition to the lineup; it replaces the non-hybrid GT Speed as the sportiest regular production version of Bentley’s signature model.

Cars

Best electric car charger deals: $100 off home charging stations

The handle of the Grizzl-E EV charger plugged into a vehicle.

There are a lot of electric vehicle options out there these days, and if you've been considering buying one or have already bought one for yourself, then one of the most important bits of kit you'll need is a home charger. While charging at a station can be a lot faster, it's often more expensive compared to charging at home, where you can just leave it overnight. Of course, even that has a lot of variability depending on the type of car charger you end up going for, with some chargers being able to charge faster than others at a higher upfront cost. Either way, we've gone out and collected some of our favorite electric car charger deals for you and listed them below.
Seguma 16Amp Level 1/2 EV Charger -- $115, was $150

If you need a more basic charger, this Level one and two charger from Seguma is a solid option and can deliver 16 amps and 3.84kW, which is pretty substantial. It also comes with a NEMA 6-20 plug and a standardized J1772 connector, which should work on most EV vehicles out there except for Tesla, which has its own connector. There are also some intelligent charging features, which include things such as protection against things like under and over voltage, leakage, and lighting, and it has an automatic cut-off when your EV is fully charged.

Cars

2025 Chevrolet Blazer vs. 2024 Blazer: everything new this year

Chevy Blazer EV on a street

It seems like Chevrolet is ready to take the electric Blazer to the next level. The company has announced the 2025 model of its midsize EV, and it represents a helpful upgrade over the 2024 model.

The Chevy Blazer EV is one of Chevy's cheaper EV models, though not quite as cheap as the Equinox EV. Previously, the Bolt EV was the company's cheapest electric car; however, that car is currently on hiatus, with a redesign expected in the not-too-distant future.